Bun­goma court fines man Sh5 mil­lion for elec­tric­ity theft

A man has been fined Sh5 mil­lion by a Bun­goma court for il­le­gal elec­tric­ity con­nec­tion as Kenya Power ups fight against theft of elec­tric­ity. Ge­of­frey Kiberenge, who was ar­rested in Bun­goma on Oc­to­ber 19, will serve a 10-year jail term in de­fault of the fine. About 60 peo­ple have been ar­rested coun­try­wide and charged in court for var­i­ous al­leged of­fences, mostly il­le­gal con­nec­tions. This fol­lows an on­go­ing crack­down on il­le­gal con­nec­tions by the Kenya Power’s se­cu­rity per­son­nel on unau­tho­rised re­con­nec­tions, van­dal­ism and theft of elec­tric­ity. “Il­le­gal con­nec­tions un­der­mine the re­li­a­bil­ity of power sup­ply as they over­load the dis­tri­bu­tion net­work and re­sult in un­planned out­ages and may cause in­jury or death,” Kenya Power chief ex­ec­u­tive Ben Chumo said yes­ter­day in a state­ment. At the Coast, Nathan Wasike and Paul Akuto Okech were ar­rested in Likoni yes­ter­day for be­ing in pos­ses­sion of KPLC la­belled climb­ing irons. They were booked in at Likoni Po­lice Post and are ex­pected to ap­pear in court to­day. In Ruaraka, Ja­cob Abade Any­waya was ar­rested for im­per­son­at­ing Kenya Power staff.